Feds: Massapequa couple laundered money from prostitution ring

Vincent and Melissa Lombardo were arrested at their Massapequa home and are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in federal district court in Brooklyn on money laundering and prostitution charges, authorities said. (July 18, 2013) Photo Credit: Howard Schnapp

A Massapequa couple who took in at least $1 million in the past two years by running an international call-girl ring via the Internet from a quiet suburban street was arrested Thursday by federal agents and New York police, officials said.

Vincent Lombardo, 44, and his wife, Melissa Lombardo, 43, of 3 Franklin Place, who are accused of operating the ring under the name Aphrodite Companions, were charged at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn both with money laundering and engaging in financial transactions that promoted prostitution.

They are accused of running the business, then using the money for expenses as well as depositing the money generated from prostitution into bank accounts. Their attorney said Thursday his clients are not guilty.

Their business was named after the Greek goddess of love, and the prostitutes who worked for them were very choosy about their clientele, according to a complaint filed in court. One woman working as a prostitute in Dubai, for example, insisted that she would only have clients who were at five-star hotels, the complaint said.

The Lombardos, who authorities charge also ran the ring from a home in upscale Boca Raton, Fla., in turn were very selective about whom they employed, the complaint added.

At one point, an Aphrodite employee was instructed in an email how to screen a potential prostitute, the complaint says. "She must send a full photo of her face and body connected that we can see, otherwise she can keep it moving. We don't need trash girls or drug girls or girls that aren't GFE. It is our way or they don't work for us." GFE stands for providing a girlfriend experience.

The Lombardos promised the prostitutes they selected well-to-do or influential customers, the complaint said.

Possible clients at "a big event" in Miami are described in another email, according to the complaint, as "a group of politicians, lawyers, and many other important businessmen [who] are looking for companions."

In all, the Lombardos' ring provided prostitutes across the United States, as well as in Europe, South Africa, Israel and other parts of the Middle East, the complaint said.

The Lombardos were held without bail as a flight risk at the Brooklyn hearing by Magistrate Cheryl Pollak.

Pollak acted after Eastern District federal prosecutors said they believed the Lombardos may have hidden millions of dollars in profits in addition to the slightly more than $1 million in bank accounts that the investigation uncovered.

The defense attorney for both Lombardos, Robert J. Del Col of Smithtown, said the prosecutors were wrong about any supposed "missing cash" and that his clients were not guilty of the charges.

Jim Psomas, who lives across the street from the Lombardos, said, "There were always different people [there] . . . A lot of guys in their early 30s. I saw a lot of girls . . . they were head-turners, but they weren't dressed sexy, they were dressed appropriately. No miniskirts . . . No loud music, no loud noise, just too many different cars."